Research funding in the first quarter of the new fiscal year ending Sept. 30 reached $69.4 million — a 60 percent increase over the record-setting first quarter of $43.4 million a year ago.

According to the Office of Research Services and Administration, first-quarter awards included 83 $10.2 million of the $12.3 million the UO has received under the federal government’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

“Although we always interpret the results for one quarter with great caution, the $69.4 million funding level for new grant awards is remarkable, especially considering that the UO record for an entire fiscal year is $115.3 million (2007-2008),” said Rich Linton, UO vice president for research and graduates studies. “Although the federal ARRA funding was a significant factor, it contributed only 15 percent of the total awards for the first quarter. All federal funding for research and other sponsored programs contributed $64.3 million for the first quarter, or about 92 percent of the university’s total.”

The federal research dollars to the UO for the quarter are virtually identical to the total $64 million state appropriation as authorized for the 2009-2010 fiscal year to the university.

“This is just one more measure of the outstanding and growing achievements of UO faculty scholars and associated researchers in attracting competitively awarded research funds, despite the chronic disinvestment of the state in its higher-education system,” said James Bean, UO senior vice president and provost.

In addition to federal funds, research dollars originate from sub-federal, state, corporation, association, foundation and other sources. Sub-federal awards are flow-through federal allocations initially dispersed to another recipient such as a state agency. Other sources include entities such as educational institutions, city or county governments, Native American tribes and foreign agencies.

David Tyler has been named the first recipient of the Charles J. and M. Monteith Jacobs Professorship in Chemistry. Appointment to an endowed professorship recognizes outstanding contributions to a research discipline and teaching.  Candidates are expected to have achieved a level of national and international recognition.

Tyler, a member of the Materials Science Institute, is widely recognized as a dedicated teacher and mentor, and has a long history of productive research.  His CV lists 174 papers in print, and several articles accepted or submitted for publication. Tyler’s general research area is inorganic and organometallic chemistry.

The Charles J. and M. Monteith Jacobs Professorship in Chemistry is a newly created endowed professorship. It was made possible by two gifts from the late Charles J. Jacobs, and was named for both himself and his brother.

The department of architecture is sponsoring a series of advanced courses to educate students about the elements and issues involved in construction management.  The courses are made possible by a gift from Hoffman Construction. The first course of the series started this fall and is taught by adjunct instructor William G. Ramroth, Jr.

“I’m presenting to the students the multiple definitions of construction management, including the big-picture view which is managing the planning, design, and construction of building projects, “ said Ramroth. “Students will learn the various aspects of this profession and what is expected of an architect during construction.  In addition, they will learn about other career opportunities for architects in the field of construction management.”

Students will study Oregon building codes, learn how to certify a project to meet U.S. Green Building Council LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) requirements, and learn about the partnership between architects and construction companies including work planning, project scheduling, construction cost estimating, review of submittals, risk management and ethical conduct.

The university campus in Eugene affords a rich environment to study buildings under construction.  Currently, Hoffman Construction is building the new Matthew Knight arena, the below ground parking structure and the athletic academic learning center.  Completed projects include the Knight Law School and the Casonova Center’s expanded locker and weight room, medical treatment area and offices. Students will have hard hat tours to observe construction sites and will learn from construction managers at Hoffman Construction and Chambers Construction.

Bart Eberwein, vice president of Hoffman Construction, said he wants “to see that architecture students learn the importance of becoming a more informed member of the team when it comes to construction means and methods. It is important to foster teamwork in order to see great projects happen.  Both architects and construction firms do important, long-lasting work.”

Bora Simmons, a researcher at University of Oregon’s Institute for a Sustainable Environment, has received an award from the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) for “Outstanding Service to EE by an Individual at the Global Level.” The award is given each year to an individual who has made a significant contribution to environmental education (EE) that has impacted people throughout the world. Simmons accepted the award in October at the NAAEE conference in Portland.

For more than 15 years, Simmons has led the effort on behalf of NAAEE to design, develop, print and implement several volumes of the Guidelines for Excellence in Environmental Education. The Guidelines for Excellence are a bridge between the formal and nonformal education communities, providing a pedagogy resource to those who have the environmental content knowledge, but who lack the skills and creative methods to convey that knowledge to a variety of audiences with different learning styles.

Peggy Pascoe, history professor, continues to be recognized for her recent book, “What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law and the Making of Race in America” (Oxford University Press, 2008).

Pascoe, whose research and teaching focuses on the history of race, gender and sexuality, will be honored with two of the major annual prizes given by the American Historical Association: the John H. Dunning Prize, given for the best book in U.S. history (any field, any period) and the Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in Women’s History. The AHA award ceremony will take place in January.

Earlier this year, Pascoe’s book was awarded two major prizes from the Organization of American Historians: the 2009 Ellis W. Hawley Prize and the 2009 Lawrence W. Levine Award. Pascoe was a finalist for the 2009 John Hope Franklin Publication Prize of the American Studies Association, which recognizes the best book published in the field.

Pascoe is Beekman Professor of Northwest and Pacific History and Professor of Ethnic Studies. She said she is “fascinated by the cultural and historical processes that make race, gender, and sexuality seem like ‘natural,’ common-sense differences rather than the power-laden hierarchies they really are.”

“What Comes Naturally” has been a vehicle for Pascoe to delve into these themes. The book shows these dynamics at work in the passage, spread and enforcement of American laws against interracial marriage. Marked by the invention of the term “miscegenation” and justified by the claim that interracial marriage was “unnatural,” they prohibited marriage between “whites” and “Negroes,” “Mongolians,” “Chinese,” “Japanese,” “Indians,” “Kanakas,” and “Hindus,” says Pascoe. Yet race is only one part of this story, for the nature of race was (and is) deeply interwoven with claims about the nature of gender and sexuality.

The Officers of Administration Years of Service Recognition Reception will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 10, in the EMU Ballroom.  The program is from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with a special presentation at 11:30 a.m. by President Richard Lariviere.

The reception will honor 85 university employees who have reached the milestones of 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 years of service. For a list of individuals who are being recognized, please go to the Recognition Programs webpage at: http://hr.uoregon.edu/recognition.

For more information, contact Kathy Cooks at 346-2939 or kcooks@uoregon.edu.

Josh Faught, professor of art, has received the 31st annual Betty Bowen Award, an unrestricted prize of $15,000 open to Northwest artists. Faught accepted the honor on Oct. 23 at a ceremony at the Seattle Art Museum, which will also exhibit a selection of his work.

Since 1977, the Betty Bowen Awards have recognized emerging artists working in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho in the spirit of longtime Seattle-based arts patron Betty Bowen. Two special recognition awards of $2,500 each were also granted. Faught was selected from a pool of 494 applicants.

His work with textiles and fibers addresses multiple histories and mythologies, both personal and social. He juxtaposes more traditional fiber craft with sculptural, multimedia elements that incorporate political and pop artifacts and slogans. Faught received a master’s of fine arts with an emphasis in fiber and material studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006. He also received a degree in textile and surface design from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York in 2004.

Faught, who joined the UO faculty in 2007, plans to apply the grant back into his practice, whether in terms of materials or research. He is currently preparing for his first solo show in January 2010 at the Lisa Cooley Gallery in New York.

Robyn Hathcock, UO Housing Recycling Coordinator, has been recognized by the Lane County Resource Recovery Advisory Committee with the School Program Trashbuster award.

During her 11 years, Hathcock has developed one of the most successful housing waste reduction and recycling programs in the country. As a result of her efforts, each residence room contains recycling bin and instructions and each incoming student is given a UO reusable water bottle. She has worked with students to encourage housing to implement a voluntary option of reusable plates in the campus meals program which allowed that program to reduce trash generation by one third.

Hathcock has also been involved in growing the national Recyclemania competition from two schools in 2000 to more than 500 colleges and universities in 2008.

Two UO professors were selected to each receive a Sony Scholar Award worth $2300 in new technology. Allison Carruth is a professor of English and John Fenn is an arts and administrationprofessor.

Sony Electronics, with support from Intel, recently launched the education scholarship program that provides students and faculty with the latest Sony technology to help them continue to achieve academic excellence. Five UO undergraduate students and two faculty members were chosen for their outstanding scholarly work and potential to make significant contributions in their fields of study.

The award includes a technology package from Sony valued at $2,000 including a VAIO notebook computer, camcorder, reader, memory stick, and display monitor.  In addition, the UO Bookstore/Duck Store has donated a Microsoft Office software package.

Mike Posner, professor emeritus of psychology, shakes hands with President Obama during a White House ceremony Oct. 7 for the winners of the 2008 National Medal of Science and Technology, the government’s highest honor bestowed upon scientists. A video of the 25-minute ceremony is available on the Web, with the presentation of Posner’s award coming 18 minutes into the ceremony.

Two doctoral candidates have been awarded the 2009-10 University of Oregon Doctoral Research Fellowship: Shannon Elizabeth Bell, sociology, and Caitlin Snyder, music. The fellowship, which includes an $18,000 stipend and a university tuition waiver, supports outstanding advanced doctoral degree candidates as they complete their research and write their dissertations. The funding begins in the fall of 2009 and is available to recipients for up to 12 months.

The fellowship program, a joint effort of the Graduate School and the Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies, is designed to promote excellence in research at the University of Oregon. The fellowships are available to eligible doctoral degree candidates in all academic disciplines in their final year at the university. Each department nominates one candidate for the fellowship and a subcommittee of the University of Oregon Graduate Council evaluates the applications in consultation with Richard W. Linton, Vice President of Research and Graduate Studies and Dean of the Graduate School.

Bell is studying the social and environmental impacts of the coal industry on central Appalachia and the grassroots environmental justice movement that has risen up to hold the coal industry accountable for irresponsible mining practices.

Snyder is studying the communicative properties of 18th-century music. By combining three normally separate analytical tools in music theory, she is exploring musical meaning within François Couperin’s collection for the harpsichord, “Les Pièces de Clavecin.”

Dennis Jenkins, professor of archaeology and researcher at the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History, is the winner of the 26th annual Earle A. Chiles Award given by the High Desert Museum in Bend. Jenkins was recognized for his more than two decades of research into human ecology and cultural history in the High Desert.

Jenkins published a paper in the journal Science last year documenting his 2002 discovery of genetic evidence that humans were living in the Paisley Caves in south central Oregon 14,000 years ago. That challenged the theory of how and when the first people came to North America and attracted worldwide attention.

The discovery involved interdisciplinary research and an international team of scientific experts, noted the Bend museum’s announcement. “It was a milestone in archaeology and in his long career, throughout which he succeeded in finding common ground with diverse groups of Native American tribes and other interest groups in Oregon through sometimes complex and sensitive negotiations. He also has shared his knowledge, traveling throughout Oregon, enthusiastically educating the public about the meaning of archaeological findings in the High Desert.”

The $15,000 award was established in 1983 in honor of Earle A. Chiles, Oregonian, businessman and philanthropist. It is funded by the Chiles Foundation and will be presented Dec. 1 at the Earle A. Chiles Award Banquet in Portland.

The Association of University Architects awarded Chris Ramey, university architect and associate vice president for Campus Planning and Real Estate, an award of merit in recognition of the significant contribution the planning and design of the Many Nations Longhouse has made to the campus.

The award was one of five given at the association’s annual meeting in Saskatoon, Canada in June. This is the fourth time the UO and Ramey have been honored by the association in the last 12 years.  Part of the award included a case study presentation focusing on diversity in design and the Many Nations Longhouse.

The Association of University Architects was founded in 1956, is limited to one member per campus and consists of 120 members from universities in the US and Canada.  Its purpose is to promote the effective planning of the physical environments of higher education, improve the design and construction of university buildings and campuses, and exchange ideas on best practices between its members.

Eileen Otis, assistant professor of sociology, has received honorable mentions by the American Sociological Review for her 2008 article “Beyond the Industrial Paradigm: Consumer Markets and the Gender Politics of Labor in China’s Globalized Service Workplaces.”
The article was nominated for best publication awards in both the “Sex and Gender” and “Asia/Asian American” sections. She received honorable mentions in both.
The ASA describes her article:

How Do Local Consumer Markets Impact Staff-Customer Relationships?
Are relationships and interactions between staffs and customers influenced by gender and local communities and markets? Why, in service work, such as hospitality services where women constitute the majority of the workforce, do workers display different gender norms or organize customer relations differently in different settings? Sociologist Eileen Otis studies this phenomenon by comparing two luxury hotels in two Chinese cities, Beijing and Kunming, both run according to the same business plan created by a U.S. corporation. She finds that in the Beijing hotel, which caters largely to Western businessmen, female service workers use feminized practices, which originated in the United States, to anticipate and cater to customer needs. In the Kunming hotel, female service workers display their expertise at their jobs to maintain control over their customers, who are largely Chinese businessman entertaining clients. One reason for this type of interaction is that workers do not want to be mistaken for sex workers, who are common in the area. The hotels are both working off of the same business plan, but the workers’ on-site interpretations of the plan vary widely due to localized customs.

Don Truax, professor emeritus of mathematics, has received the 2009 Carver Medal from the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS). The presentation of the medal took place in August at a special ceremony at the IMS Annual Meeting/Joint Statistical Meetings in Washington, D.C.

Professor Truax received the award for his many years of outstanding and dedicated services to IMS, especially for his sterling contributions to IMS publications as managing editor and as member and chair of the Committee on Publications and Committee to Select Editors.

The Carver Medal was created by the IMS in 2002 in honor of Harry C.
Carver, Founding Editor of the Annals of Mathematical Statistics and one of the founders of the IMS. The medal is for exceptional service specifically to the IMS and is open to any member of the IMS who has not previously been elected president. Created in 1933, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics is a member organization which fosters the development and dissemination of the theory and applications of statistics and probability. The IMS has 4,500 active members throughout the world.

Mike Eyster, assistant vice president for Student Affairs, and director, University Health Center, was awarded the James C. Grimm Leadership & Service Award at the recent Association of College and University Housing Officers-International (ACUHO-I) annual conference.

The award is given to an individual each year by the association based on leadership and service to the association and the field of student housing.

ACUHO-I is made up of thousands of housing professionals at over 900 colleges and universities in 22 countries. The purpose of ACUHO-I is to provide first rate programs, research, services and information to university and college housing professionals toward the goal of providing college students with housing that adds educational value to their college/university experience.

Mike has served in a number of leadership capacities in ACUHO-I during the past 30 plus years. Mike was the Housing Director at UO from 1991-2008.

Seven UO faculty members have received Fulbright Scholar awards to teach and conduct research abroad during the 2009-10 academic year. Fulbright award recipients are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. The seven UO recipients are Dennis Galvan, Renee Irvin, John Miller, Doris Payne, William Rossi, Marc Schlossberg and Magid Shirzadegan.

Dennis Galvan, professor of international studies and political science, will depart this fall for a research grant in Senegal, West Africa. In his Fulbright year, Galvan is developing a network of scholars from across the West African region to explore hybrid institutions for managing conflict between ethnic groups. Over the last 20 years Galvan has done field work in and around Toucar, a small village in rural Senegal. His interest is in politics and economic development as seen, felt and understood from the bottom up. By doing research that’s very close to the lives and experiences of ordinary people, Galvan is able to show how, in places like Toucar, people neither fully embrace nor completely reject new, foreign ways of organizing free markets, setting up democracy or building nations.

“Instead they borrow a bit from their old traditions and mix in what they consider the best of modern models to make syncretic blends or hybrids,” says Galvan. “The resulting versions of markets, democracy and the nation might look pretty strange to Western eyes, but make a lot of sense to local people and, critically, hold their trust.”

For Renee Irvin, professor of planning, public policy and management, director of the nonprofit graduate certificate program, and coordinator of finance and operations for the school of architecture and allied arts, the lectureship award presents a wonderful opportunity to study personal income and wealth policy from an international perspective. Irvin will teach for one semester at Zhongshan University (also known as Sun Yat-Sen University) in Guangzhou, a heavily developed province in the South, close to the industrial powerhouse regions of Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

“I will also be able to observe China’s nonprofit/nongovernmental sector growth up close, which may lead to future comparative studies of U.S./Chinese civil society and social entrepreneurship,” she said.

John Miller, professor of couples and family therapy in the College of Education, will also travel to China. The objective of his project is to develop and study solution-focused therapy service to be piloted at the Institute of Developmental Psychology at Beijing Normal University. While most Chinese therapies are based on Western models, few studies have explored how to adapt the practice of therapy to fit the Chinese culture. The results of this project will help inform the development of culturally congruent therapies and aid in the effort to overcome common barriers to service around the world.

“It is a great honor for me to have a chance to conduct this research in China as a Fulbright scholar,” said Miller. “The award will provide a rare opportunity to spend a significant amount of time in China at a moment in history when there are many changes and advances occurring. My hope is that this will foster a line of research and scholarship that will continue for many years into the future.”

Doris Payne, professor of linguistics, will participate in the African Regional Research Program in Tanzania. She will work on linguistic analysis of Il-Parakuyo Maa (Masai), which is spoken in south-central Tanzania. The focus of the research is on verb and clause structure of the language, how many varieties are spoken in Kenya and the implications for developing a dictionary, grammar and other language materials for Maa speakers. The last research of the language was conducted around 1850 and a goal of the project is to evaluate how the language has changed.

This is the second Fulbright Scholar award for  William Rossi, professor of English. His first award was in 2002-03 when he received a lectureship in Heidelberg, Germany. His second award, this time in Freiburg, Germany, is a senior lecture/research award to “transplant Oregon Green Studies in Germany.” As a specialist in American literature and environmental humanities with particular interests in the writings of Henry David Thoreau, and a member of the English Department’s Environmental Literature faculty group, Rossi will teach courses in ecocriticism while collaborating with American Studies faculty at the University of Freiburg. Rossi’s project calls for transplanting Oregon approaches to Germany with the expectation that those approaches will be hybridized in return.

“Like many U.S. American Studies scholars, much of my work as a scholar and teacher of American transcendentalism and environmental studies has been pursued within an exclusively U.S. framework,” said Rossi.

Marc Schlossberg, professor in the department of planning, public policy and management, will depart for the United Kingdom in August where he has accepted a Fulbright award with the University of Sheffield. His research project, “Sustainable City Design, Active Transportation and Citizen Engagement,” will examine how urban form influences walking and biking. Specifically, he will look at neighborhood design, children’s travel routes to school, and citizen’s role and engagement in neighborhood mapping. Schlossberg will also teach two courses.

“I expect this Fulbright award to open many doors, initiate a new avenue of applied research for me personally, and add breadth and depth to the new Sustainable Cities Initiative at the University of Oregon,” said Schlossberg.

Magid Shirzadegan, director of international student and scholar services, participated in an international education administrators award in Korea last month.

“Participation in the Fulbright in Korea opened my eyes to a very rich culture. In spite of the small size of the Korean peninsula and constant threat by its powerful neighbors, it has been thriving economically and technologically. I believe one of the main explanations for this success story lies in the strength and resilience of Korean people,” said Shirzadegan.

Shirzadegan and other participants visited more than 10 institutions of higher education in Seoul, Taegu, Daejeon and Pusan. “Most major universities in Korea teach hundreds of courses in English attracting thousands of students from all over the world, primarily from East and South-East Asia,” he said. “The experience and knowledge I gained from the Fulbright would not only benefit me and my own work, but it could also be useful to the larger community of faculty and administrators at the UO.”

The Fulbright Scholar Program, sponsored by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, is America’s flagship international educational exchange program. Since its inception in 1946, the Fulbright Program has sponsored approximately 273,500 American and foreign scholars. Recipients are selected based on academic or professional achievement as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields.

G.Z. “Charlie” Brown and Ihab Elzeyadi, both of the department of architecture in the UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts, swept the two major awards given at last month’s Passive and Low Energy Architecture (PLEA) conference in Quebec City.

Brown, a UO Knight Professor, won the 2009 PLEA Award, given annually to “a regional figure or organization of international distinction.” Brown also delivered a keynote address, in which he told attendees that the integration of passive bioclimatic strategies can provide intense sensory and mental pleasure while optimizing both the building’s and the occupant’s performances.

Elzeyadi won the PLEA 2009 Best Paper Award for “Architectural Pride and Environmental Prejudice: The Effect of Personal Status, Historical Value, and Indoor Décor on Occupants Indoor Environmental Quality in Offices.”

The 26th PLEA conference explored the quest for passive and low energy architecture through the occupants’ perspective at the urban and building scales. The aim of the conference was to share cutting-edge research and knowledge that position the inhabitants as key to the energy performance in buildings and urban settings. PLEA is an autonomous, non-profit association of individuals sharing the art, science, planning and design of the built environment.

Brown and Elzeyadi also are among UO faculty members who are affiliated with Oregon Built Environment & Sustainable Technologies Center (Oregon BEST), a state signature center that connects the state’s businesses with its shared network of university labs to transform green building and renewable energy research into on-the-ground products, services and jobs.

Eight University of Oregon students have received U.S. Student Program Fulbright awards for international study or research during the 2009-10 academic year. This is the largest number of UO student Fulbright recipients in the last 15 years. A total of 185 UO students have received the award.

The recipients are Amanda Cornwall, Beth Dehn, Jill Jakimetz, Andrew King, Thomas Nail, Ingrid Nelson, Jan Verberkmoes and Jordan Wooley.

Andrew King, a doctoral candidate in the department of history received an award for his project, “Cultures of Wolf Hunting and Environmental Thought in Early Modern Saxony.” King will conduct research in the archives of Sachsiche Hauptstaatsarchiv in Dresden, Germany and will work with faculty from the Technische Universitat Dresden starting this September.

Thomas Nail, a philosophy doctoral candidate, was awarded a Fulbright to conduct research in Montréal and Toronto as a visiting scholar at the Center of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement (CERIS). Drawing on the political philosophy of French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, his research will focus on the political organization and theoretical innovations of Canada’s diverse and burgeoning immigrant rights movement.

Ingrid Nelson’s grant will support her doctoral dissertation research in geography. Her project, “Gender Equity and Rural Sustainable Development in Zambézia, Mozambique,” examines a groundbreaking new family law passed in 2004, which may significantly shift land and natural resource tenure access and ownership for rural men and women in Mozambique. Nelson will spend 10 months in Maputo and Quelimane, completing the majority of her research in rural communities.

Beth Dehn, a recent master’s graduate of the UO’s interdisciplinary folklore program, received an English Teaching Assistant Fulbright award to teach in Uruguay. She will spend eight months in Montevideo and will also complete an internship at a museum.

Recent UO graduates, Jordan Wooley and Jan Verberkmoes, also received English Teaching Assistant awards. Wooley received a bachelor’s degree in business administration and Verberkmoes received a bachelor’s in German and English. Both will spend next year in Germany.

Amanda Cornwall received an English Teaching Assistant grant for Hungary but declined the award.

For more than 60 years, Fulbright student grants have aimed to increase mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchange, while serving as a catalyst for long-term leadership development. Fulbright full grants generally provide funding for round-trip travel, maintenance for one academic year, health and accident coverage, and full or partial tuition.

The National Residence Hall Honorary recognized several university people and programs for “Of the Month” regional awards in May. The winners were selected from schools on the West Coast and will be submitted for consideration in the national awards.
The awards were:

• Sasha Masoomi, advisor
• LLC Block Party, social program
• Desiree Woodruff, spotlight
• Barbara Numez, faculty/staff
• Duck Preview 2023, community service program

The Office of the Vice President for Research and Oregon Community Credit Union are pleased to announce the 2009-2010 Oregon Community Credit Union Research Fellows. The fellows are:

• Elizabeth Chan (AAA) for her proposal “Chinatown Invisible: A Visual History of a New York City Landscape”

• Ellen Hawley McWhirter and Benedict McWhirter (COE) for their proposal “Preventing Dropouts Among Latino High School Students with Limited English: A Pilot Study”

• Kim Bartel Sheehan and Harsha Gangadharbatla (SOJC) for their proposal “Facebook Friends, YouTubers and the Twitterati: An Examination of ‘New’ Digital Communities in the Web 2.0 Era”

Each of the three proposed projects will receive $10,000 in research support.

In its fourth year, the fellowship program elicits a highly positive response from UO’s research community including a number of collaborative proposals. The focus for 2009-2010 proposals was on research related to the professional programs in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts, College of Education and the School of Journalism and Communication. The review committee was comprised of senior leadership from the three schools who recommended the finalists to the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies.

“These three projects are exemplars of the excellent research being done by UO researchers in our professional programs,” said Rich Linton, vice president for research and graduate studies. “My thanks to the review committee members who had the unenviable task of choosing only three projects among a highly competitive pool.”

A celebration of the 2009-2010 Oregon Community Credit Union awardees will take place to coincide with the beginning of the fellowships in the fall term. Details about the event will be made available closer to the date.

The program runs on a five-year cycle to encompass the different disciplinary areas represented at the university. The focus for 2010-2011 is expected to support natural and physical sciences research. Oregon Community Credit Union provides $5500 per award and the remaining portion of the $10,000 award is supported by the Office of the
Vice President for Research.

-Submitted by Naomi Crow

Mary K. Rothbart, professor emeritus of psychology, is the recipient of the 2009 Gold Medal for Life Achievement in the Science of Psychology. The award was announced in May by the American Psychological Foundation.

“Rothbart’s contributions to the development of the concept of temperament — the basic foundation of personality — have been fundamental to the field of psychology,” noted the foundation’s announcement. “She proposed a unique theory of temperament, in which temperament is seen as individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation, influenced over time by heredity, maturation, and experience. She described temperament as a dynamic system that changes from infancy to adulthood.”

Rothbart, who earned a doctorate in psychology from Stanford University, joined the UO in 1970. She retired in 2002. She will officially receive the award on Aug. 7 during the annual convention of the American Psychological Association in Toronto. The APF also will make a $2,000 donation in Rothbart’s honor to a charity of her choice.

Eight faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences will be recognized for their innovative ideas and significant research achievements. The fourth annual UO Research Innovation Awards ceremony and reception, hosted by the Office of the Vice President for Research, will honor the awardees on June 4, starting at 5 p.m. in the EMU Ballroom.

The Research Innovation Awards are held annually in the late spring to celebrate the diversity of UO’s research and scholarly achievements. Each year the awards focus on a specific area. This year’s focus is on the sciences. Past years have focused on the humanities, fine and performing arts, and research innovation.

The 2009 Research Innovation Awardees are:

Gregory Bothun, Physics
Raymond Frey, Physics
Jennifer J. Freyd, Psychology
Eugene Humphreys, Geological Sciences
Ray Weldon II, Geological Sciences
James A. Isenberg, Mathematics
Shawn Lockery, Biology
David R. Tyler, Chemistry

For more information, visit research.uoregon.edu/RIA.

–Submitted by Stacy Williams-Wright